Volcanoes, outdoor recreation, hot springs, a lively music scene, super quick access to 20-plus European locations (particularly Scandinavia), and more make Iceland a very cool place to have a stopover. Icelandair will be starting service from Vancouver International Airport on May 14th and to celebrate, they will be hosting a #scaVANgerhunt this week.

Icelandair’s ScaVANger Hunt

Starting Thursday, April 10th, Icelandair representatives will be hitting the streets of Vancouver and surrounding areas to give away free round-trip tickets, with one pair given away each day through Saturday, April 12th. Also, throughout each day, Icelandair will be handing out additional prizes including gift certificates for travel, t-shirts, Icelandic music CDs and cool merchandise.

How can Vancouverites join the #scaVANgerhunt?
Icelandair will be providing that day’s password on Facebook and Twitter, along with clues to help find the location of each day’s tickets.

Clues will be given at various times of the day until the tickets are found. The first person to arrive at the location and reveal the password to the Icelandair representatives will win tickets for two to one of more than 20 destinations in Europe. Read full contest terms and conditions.

I will draw one winner at 10:00am on April 9th, April 10th, and April 11th from all entries. Follow Vancouver’s award-winning airport on Twitter along with Icelandair on Twitter for more information about the #scaVANgerhunt contest this week.

Update The first winner is Monica! Look for two more winners on Thursday and Friday.Update The second winner is @lyteforce on Twitter!Update The last winner is David!

Iceland is one of the few places in the world to view the Northern Lights (the aurora borealis). This is one of the top things on my bucket lists to do (i even already have my hotel picked out for when i luck out to go!)

There are no family names or surnames in Iceland (they’re mostly Danish).For the majority of Icelanders people have a last name that is comprised from their father’s (or mother’s) first name with the addition of -dóttir (-daughter) or -son.

Iceland is no. 1 on my list of places to go. I literally have a file labeled “Iceland inspiration” on my computer where I put amazing pictures of Iceland with a label of the location so I can make sure to find that spot when I visit. Fact: According to Landnámabók (the medieval Icelandic written work describing the settlement (landnám) of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries) the settlement of Iceland began in AD 874 when the chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent Norse settler on the island.

Roughly between mid-January to mid-February is the ancient month of Thorri,the time for Thorrablót, or a Thorri feast. Thorrablot was a sacrificial midwinter festival offered to the gods in pagan Iceland of the past. In today’s times, Icelanders will attend at least one Thorrablót feast, where they will gather together, eat, drink, and be merry!

The hotdogs in Iceland are legendary. They are called Pylsur and even Bill Clinton himself thinks they are amazing. He visited a 24hr famous hot dog stand there called (if anyone can ever pronounce it) Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur.

During the months of June and July, Iceland has days with a full 24 hours of precious, beautiful sunlight. While you might think of a variety of things you could do with 24 hours of light in a day, a lot of people in Iceland look at it as a splendid time to catch up on their golf

Iceland isn’t truly an arctic country – the mainland falls short of the Arctic Circle by a few kilometers. The cross the arctic circle you’d need to travel to the island of Grimsey, which is Iceland’s only real piece of Arctic territory.

Instead of Santa Claus, Iceland has something called the Yule Lads. These strange lads have an interesting history because they didn’t start out as bringers of Yuletide joy; they were actually descended from trolls and were used the way parents today use the threat of taking away a video game console—to scare small children.

The Keflavík International Airport in Iceland was built by the United States military in World War II. It was used primarily for heavy bombers but it’s built long enough to support NASA’s space shuttle.

Fact: the town of Akureyri is often called Iceland’s unofficial northern capital. Also, Akureyri is near Myvatn, where you can buy “geysirbrauð”, which is bread that has been cooked under ground using the heat of the earth!

The “geographical significance” part of Þingvellir being dubbed a UNESCO site is due to the fact that this is one of only TWO places in the entire world where you can see two of the earth’s tectonic plates meeting above the earth’s surface (the other is in Africa). The North American and Eurasian plates jut up out of the ground here in Þingvellir, moving apart roughly 2 cm per year. You can even go diving/snorkeling between the plates in nearby Þingvallavatn lake.

Keiko the killer whale, star of Free Willy, was from Iceland. Keiko means “lucky one” in the Japanese language. He was captured near Reyðarfjörður, Iceland in 1979 and sold to an Icelandic aquarium. Three years later he was sold to Marineland in Ontario where he first started performing, and also started showing signs of poor health. In 1985 he was sold to an amusement park (Six Flags) in Mexico City. He was the star of the movie Free Willy in 1993. Everyone please help stop the capture of whales for amusement!

Pound for pound, Icelandic horses are the strongest breed of equine in the world and can carry up to 300lbs even though they are relatively small. Also, if an Icelandic horse is bred outside of Iceland, it is not considered a true Icelandic horse, making the breed the purest in the world.

Iceland was named Iceland to fool people into not going there and going instead to Greenland which is icy (for now). Also, this is true, everyone who worked at Keflavik Airport in 1999 was blonde… everyone.

*All contests are open to residents of Canada only, unless otherwise stated. Contest timelines are published on each individual post along with entry methods. Some contests may only be open to those 19 years of age and older. Winners are announced on the contest blog posts. Contest policy »